Final Deliverable
Unfortunately, due to several problems that were out of our grasp of control, our airplane will not be ready for the Demo Day (May 6, 2009).
The main reason that the airplane is not complete is because the radio system that we bought does not work. We ended up going through four sets of 72 MHz crystals and three receivers, and no combination of radio components would work with the five channel transmitter that we had. Even the final configuration, which was practically fool proof, did not work. We bought the receiver and crystal that were both supposed to be used with the transmitter that we had bought, and yet the airplane still did not function. It was not until recently that the problem was diagnosed to most likely be in the transmitter, as one of the electrical components would heat up on the inside.
Another problem that we had which delayed the progress of our work was others borrowing items which we needed, such as the PICKit to upload code to the PIC. We also had a various number of electrical components fail for one reason or another, and diagnosing these problems would take a great amount of time. Two examples of failures were the data transfer cable from the PIC to the PICKit and the Oscilloscope probe.
As for what has been accomplished, most of the components which we were required to create have been completed. The bombing mechanism, including the code to run it is fully functioning, as well as the code to relate the gyro output to the camera servo angle. Due to project setbacks, full integration has not been completed, and there is no way to actually combine them all without a fully functioning five channel RC transmitter and receiver. However, we have been able to move the circuitry to a small peg board, and most of the work needed now is finishing up code to integrate the systems.
We are both satisfied with our work on this project. The lack of function in the final project is more due to random faults as opposed to a lack of enthusiasm for the project. We have also both learned a great deal in integrating electrical circuits with mechanical designs, especially in producing products that are fully functional but lightweight at the same time. Over the summer, we both have a great interest in finishing this project. We have theorized a solution to use four channels instead of five channels to create a complete system, but it will take a good deal of learning new code. In this system, instead of having the bombing switch and camera view switch on separate channels, if we use a joystick to combine both, we can have a left joystick motion to be the camera view switch and a right joystick motion to be the bomb drop switch. Upon doing so, we will update the website with any new information!
